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About The First Lady of Fleet Street

A panoramic portrait of a remarkable woman and the tumultuous Victorian era on which she made her mark, The First Lady of Fleet Street chronicles the meteoric rise and tragic fall of Rachel Beer—indomitable heiress, social crusader, and newspaper pioneer.

Rich with period detail and drawing on a wealth of original material, this sweeping work of never-before-told history recounts the ascent of two of London’s most prominent Jewish immigrant families—the Sassoons and the Beers. Born into one, Rachel married into the other, wedding newspaper proprietor Frederick Beer, the sole heir to his father’s enormous fortune. Though she and Frederick became leading London socialites, Rachel was ambitious and unwilling to settle for a comfortable, idle life. She used her husband’s platform to assume the editorship of not one but two venerable Sunday newspapers—the Sunday Times and The Observer—a stunning accomplishment at a time when women were denied the vote and allowed little access to education. Ninety years would pass before another woman would take the helm of a major newspaper on either side of the Atlantic.

It was an exhilarating period in London’s history—fortunes were being amassed (and squandered), masterpieces were being created, and new technologies were revolutionizing daily life. But with scant access to politicians and press circles, most female journalists were restricted to issuing fashion reports and dispatches from the social whirl. Rachel refused to limit herself or her beliefs. In the pages of her newspapers, she opined on Whitehall politics and British imperial adventures abroad, campaigned for women’s causes, and doggedly pursued the evidence that would exonerate an unjustly accused French military officer in the so-called Dreyfus Affair. But even as she successfully blazed a trail in her professional life, Rachel’s personal travails were the stuff of tragedy. Her marriage to Frederick drove an insurmountable wedge between herself and her conservative family. Ultimately, she was forced to retreat from public life entirely, living out the rest of her days in stately isolation.

While the men of her era may have grabbed more headlines, Rachel Beer remains a pivotal figure in the annals of journalism—and the long march toward equality between the sexes. With The First Lady of Fleet Street, she finally gets the front page treatment she deserves.

Praise

Praise for The First Lady of Fleet Street

“A fascinating portrait of a major figure in journalism.” —Booklist

“Negev and Koren have done a commendable job of retrieving Rachel Beer’s legacy of remarkable professional contributions and glittering social life.” —Publishers Weekly

“Who was the first woman to edit a national newspaper in Britain? . . . The correct answer is tellingly obscure. . . . Since journalists are not normally reluctant to memorialize themselves or to celebrate their profession, it is odd that this is the first look at the extraordinary [Rachel] Beer. . . . Biographers Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren have handsomely made up for the information deficit. Their book is a comprehensive study of Beer’s life, covering her glamorous days as a Mayfair socialite and concluding in the sad and unjust official declaration that she was ‘of unsound mind.’”—The Observer

“An extraordinary story, all the more remarkable in that such a fascinating woman should be almost completely unknown. All credit to the authors for giving the first lady of Fleet Street the byline she deserves.”—The Sunday Times

“Drawing on a great deal of original material, The First Lady of Fleet Street paints a vivid picture of a remarkable woman.”—Manchester Evening News